Teen eyewitness testifies at Ohio rape trial

March 16, 2013

STEUBENVILLE, Ohio - A teenager was granted immunity from prosecution Friday before testifying he saw a friend perform a sexual act on a 16-year-old girl after a party in eastern Ohio last summer.

The judge granted Mark Cole immunity Friday in juvenile court before he testified at the trial of two high school football players charged with raping the West Virginia girl. Cole initially had invoked his Fifth Amendment right against testifying for fear of self-incrimination.

Testimony from Cole and two other teenage boys who watched the alleged attacks is a crucial part of the state's evidence because the girl says she doesn't remember what happened. Two of the boys took video and photos of the alleged attacks, then later deleted them.

Cole, 17, testified that he watched defendant Trent Mays digitally penetrate the girl in a car early in the morning of Aug. 12. He said he filmed Mays doing it but then deleted it, prompting a prosecutor to ask why.

"It was one of those moments when you realize you did something stupid and wrong that night, so I deleted it," Cole replied.

Cole testified he saw Mays unsuccessfully try to have the girl perform oral sex on him later that night in the basement of Cole's house. Cole also testified that the alleged victim was intoxicated and slurring her words.

On cross-examination, defense attorney Walter Madison suggested that the alleged victim was behaving no differently than anyone else the night of the party.

Madison, who represents defendant Ma'Lik Richmond, suggested that Cole was remembering events differently because so much attention was now being paid to what happened. Cole agreed with Madison's suggestions.

Mays, 17, and Richmond, 16, are charged with digitally penetrating the girl, first in the car and then in the basement of a house. Mays also is charged with illegal use of a minor in nudity-oriented material. The two maintain their innocence.

Prosecutors insist the girl was too drunk to consent to sex, while defense attorneys have portrayed her as someone who was intoxicated but still in control of her actions.

On Thursday, prosecutors introduced graphic text messages in which Mays gave differing accounts of what happened between him and the girl.